Abstract

Chapter "xiangdang"鄉黨 in Lunyu論語(the Analects) has always been overlooked. Previous studies of this chapter have almost totally concentrated on ritual as a social institution from a perspective of philology and evidential studies. This article, however, probes the spiritual and philosophical implications of this chapter from a practical perspective. In my view, this chapter is a record of Kongzi孔子's "body teaching". This "body teaching" is featured by two points: one is integrating ritual practice and daily life into a continue process; the other is taking ritual practice as a bodily and spiritual exercise. It is through "xiangdang", a detailed record of Kongzi's ritual practice in various situations in his daily life, that ritual practice as a bodily and spiritual exercise is vividly focused by Kongzi himself as a paradigmatic personality, not an abstract idea any more. In this chapter, we can find that every situation of daily life is actually permeated with ritual practice, how Kongzi as a "timing sage" carries out the situated principle of "timing" in his everyday ritual practice, and, particularly, how ritual practice is performed as a bodily and spiritual exercise that entails a psychosomatic way of thinking. It is through this ritual practice as a bodily and spiritual exercise that an exemplary person or a sage can be shaped. And an exemplary person or even a sage is exactly a paradigmatic personality who can make a suitable response to any complicated situation of our daily life. "Following my heart-mind without overstepping the line", is just the description of this consummate achievement of the ritual practice as a bodily and spiritual exercise.